November 1, 2005If any celestial body in the solar system could use some good news, it's Pluto. For the last 4.6 billion years, it's sat in a cold, dim orbit three billion miles (five billion kilometers) from the sun. As far as we knew, its closest companion was the moon Charon, named for the ferryman of the deadnot exactly warm and fuzzy company.

But yesterday scientists announced that Pluto may have two additional moons. Astronomers spied the candidate satellites, named S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, in May using the Hubble Space Telescope. The twin satellites appear to loop around Pluto in a circular orbit.

If confirmed by the International Astronomical Union, the discovery will mark the first time an object in the Kuiper Beltthe huge swath of icy, rocky bodies in the outermost solar systemhas been found to have more than one moon.

"Our result suggests other bodies in the Kuiper Belt may have more than one moon," Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and team co-leader, said in a press statement. "It also means planetary scientists will have to take these new moons into account when modeling the formation of the Pluto system."